Our Latest Tiny Adventure

It is hard to believe that over three years ago Crystal and I were in such a different place from where we are now. September 10, 2010 found us wandering around James Island County Park and Campground, living for a month in our (now sold and gone) Jayco pop-up camper, sans our beautiful daughter, and questioning (yet again) our recent decision to build a tiny house trailer.

As we walked around the campground we noticed the different camper, trailers, motorhomes, and 5th wheels, that varied in size but all seemed to be about 30′ long or so with a minimum of two slide-outs. We asked ourselves allowed, “are we kidding ourselves? Can we live in a space smaller than even these RVs?” And even if we could we still weren’t sure how we could afford it. But if you have been reading our blog for the past three years you know that we DID decide we could live in a small space (240 sq.ft. to be exact), we WERE able to afford it (with a lot of help from some great partners and corporate sponsors), and we had our now 2-year old daughter. It has been one heck of a ride and we have enjoyed (almost) every second. It has pushed us to our limits, reinforced our strengths and weaknesses, and allowed us to learn a number of new skills. But now it is time for the next adventure.

What is it you may be asking? Are we building another tiny house? Are we beginning The Annex? Are we going to start constructing a slightly larger home on a foundation? Well, no. Not that any of those are way off the radar but they are not the adventure I am referring to.

As of January 15 the Tiny r(E)volution family will be full-fledged “snow birds” basking in the winter sun of the Florida Panhandle at a lovely RV resort (to be named at a later date, of course) in a borrowed 5th wheel camper (and by borrowed I mean kind of commandeered from my folks who – in my opinion – aren’t using it right now anyway). At 28 feet long with one slide-out it is ideal for what we think we need at this time. The RV has been sort of overhauled anyway as during the last year or so the King size bed has been replaced with a Temper-pedic mattress with down topper, the rear seats (amazingly uncomfortable) have been replaced with a swingback armchair and a glider with footstool, and the couch/futon has been taken out to make room for a play area for our daughter. The banquette will serve as her bed (although she will probably sleep with us mostly…I mean, who are we kidding?), and we do most eating and cooking outside in an outdoor room with our patio set. Theoretically it sounds perfect.

As you can imagine the focus of the blog will change some as we talk about living tiny in a different way; RVs and campground life. But I think it will be interesting and may even usher in a new season for the r(E)volution. Stay tuned…..

I know, I’ve been slacking off on blog posts and announcements. The only people who know are those we see in person or when someone says, “when are you building your tiny house?”

Basically, we’re purchasing a used fifth wheel RV in the next couple months (AND a truck) and will be living in that RV on our land in Kentucky until we figure out where we want to buy or build a small house on a slab foundation. We had to ask ourselves some hard questions about what we really wanted in a house (partially because of your encouragement to consider the ‘why’), but realized that a tiny house wouldn’t really fit our needs in the future.

Sounds awesome. Good for y’all. I think the hardest part about tiny house living at first is deciding if it is practical for your family or just a daydream that will cause more pain than anything. Super excited for y’all! You can always build a tiny house down the road for fun or for an office or for a guest house or something. 🙂

Where on the Panhandle? I hate to tell you it is not very nice there during the winter. It varies between rainy, blowy, cold and misty, with a side of bad weather/tornadoes. You may want to head further south if you desire the balmy 60-80 degrees you are thinking of…

Oh, you are exactly right Avril. EXACTLY right. I misspoke when I originally wrote this post. I had not yet really taken time to study the geography of Florida so I had no idea that we were going to be in South Florida. We won’t be in the panhandle at all. However, I have never edited one of our posts after publishing even when I made a mistake so I didn’t on this either.